Nerd Versus Geek

What's the difference between a nerd and a geek? My e-mail buddy Bob from Virginia says that a nerd is a geek wannabe. A geek usually is something of a gadget freak or has another type of techie skill, he explained. Something that nerds envy.

When I lamented to Bob that my son's girlfriend called me a nerd because I had my own blog, Bob teased, "Embrace your nerdness, big fella. It's time at 50-something we get in touch with our inner selves. You were a nerd in 1970, did you think you had outgrown it?"

Well, yeah, I guess I did.

Bob proclaimed himself a geek, probably even more so now than in his youth. Later in the week, in an e-mail of his own, my father asked if he were a nerd because he reads books. Taking my cue from Bob, I replied it was more likely he had geek tendencies, because my father can take apart and put back together many types of gadgets.

So dad looked up "geek" in his dictionary and reported his findings. "Geek: a carnival performer who performs sensational, morbid or disgusting acts like biting a chicken's head off."

Of course, I had to pass this along to Bob whose retort was that dad needed a newer, better dictionary. My father replied (through me) that his dictionary is not that old and is four inches thick. At this point, I tried to beg off, thinking myself just an innocent bystander. To which Bob responded, "Innocent? You called your old man a geek and somehow you're blaming it on me??"

Meanwhile, I'd described my dad as a lurker in "On Comments", a blog a written a week or so ago. That description didn't set well either. "I never really thought of myself as a lurker. I picture a lurker being like Dracula with a cape over his face with just the eyeballs sticking out,." he wrote.

Man, do I need to be careful what I say.